VERNAL — A jury trial for a Fort Duchesne man charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman he didn't know is set to begin in a month, but his attorney has asked that it not take place in Uintah County.

Defense attorney Clint Hendricks based his request, which was filed Monday in 8th District Court, on the "extensive publicity" surrounding the pending cases against Jesse Anthony Saenz, who was charged with murder last week in an unrelated case.

"The public perception is so polluted with news of the cases that Mr. Saenz cannot be assured of his right to a fair trial before an impartial jury in this jurisdiction," Hendricks wrote.

Saenz, 23, has made headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past 12 months.

Last June, he was charged with five first-degree felonies and three misdemeanors after Vernal police said he followed a woman he didn't know off a bus, grabbed her by the throat, dragged her into a vacant lot, sexually assaulted her and then fought with officers who were called to intervene.

Then, in November, Uintah County prosecutors charged Saenz with forcible sodomy, another first-degree felony, after a relative came forward and said he'd molested her in 2005 when Saenz was 16 years old.

Related:

Man charged with murdering friend while out on bail

As a condition of that bail, a judge ordered him to wear an electronic ankle monitor that would allow officers to pinpoint his location around the clock. But that didn't stop Jesse Anthony Saenz from killing a man, according to investigators in Uintah County.

And on April 21, while out on bail in the Vernal sex assault case, Saenz shot and killed Elvis Zachary Olsen, cut off the electronic ankle monitor he was required to wear as a condition of bail and then fled the state in Olsen's car, according to investigators.

Saenz was arrested the following day in Arizona, returned to Utah and charged on May 30 with murder, theft and possession of a weapon by a restricted person. He made his first court appearance on those charges Tuesday before Judge Clark McClellan.

Saenz was also slated to be in court Tuesday for a final pretrial hearing in the kidnapping and sexual assault case. McClellan questioned the timeliness of Hendricks' request for a change of venue, given that a four-day jury trial in the case is set to begin July 8.

Both Hendricks and Uintah County Attorney G. Mark Thomas, however, said they believe the change of venue issue can be addressed without the need to reschedule the trial.

Thomas told the Deseret News before court Tuesday morning that he still hadn't had a chance to see the two-page motion Hendricks filed, but said he doesn't believe it's "frivolous." The prosecutor appeared to provide support for that belief in court.

"Because he now has new charges that may have also received some local press coverage, that kind of changes how the whole approach to the original case was working," Thomas told McClellan.

McClellan set a June 18 hearing for the change of venue motion. That's two days before the deadline for jury summons to go out, if the July 8 trial is to take place.

Saenz remains in the Uintah County Jail, where he is being held without bail.

Related topics